jonwil

Looks like the only "new to target" items for their sale are the Clone Turbo Tank and the World Racers sets, none of which I want. Looks like I am set on buying the fire station from K-Mart (if you like trans-light-blue window and windscreen parts, its a great set to buy for that reason alone, at ~30% off RRP its the cheapest its going to get anytime soon :) and that's it unless a City Corner shows up on the cheap somewhere. Then I just need to wait for the GOOD stuff to appear (Grand Emporium, City House, Public Transport, yellow truck, TRU truck) and find me a way to get the Pig Farmer, Jester and Wizzard impulses without paying big bucks :)

Thats bad news if the impulse sets arent comming to Australia. But it may just be that the impulse sets arent selling in big enough numbers to justify bringing the new ones to Australia As for the Grand Emporium, its comming to David Jones later in the year.

The exclusive thing is driven by the stores. Stores want toys (not just LEGO) that only they have so as to drive sales to their stores. And the retailers have the power to demand such exclusives ("Give us exclusives or we wont buy as much product from you")

That has to do with the playability aspects. By including both the "good" and "bad" guys (the space police and the aliens in SP3, the Agents and villians in Agents, the divers and squid/etc in Atlantis, the red and green knights in Kingdoms, the miners and rock monsters in Power Miners) in the sets, the play value goes up. Say what you will but LEGO has done focus group research and kids want sets that include both good and bad guys.

Something else that has changed is the size and parts count of sets. For example a set like 6695 Shell Tanker is smaller than a modern set like the 3180 Tank Truck. Plus the new tank truck has the little fuel pump thing. (this practice of including small "extras" in a set seems to be growing, e.g. the little radar stand in the 3181 Passenger Plane or the little stand in the 3178 Seaplane or the telephone in the red sports car set) Also, in themes like Castle and Space, there is the "play value" factor. Take the new Kingdoms set 7950 (the smallest Kingdoms set except the impulses). In the past, you would have gotten the catapult and one figure (and the catapult would have been smaller) but now you get a larger catapult, a weapons rack with some weapons plus a "bad guy" figure. Same with Space Police, the ship in Squidman Escape is a little larger than small space ships of the past plus you get the alien figure. Larger sets are getting bigger too, compare the size of a set like 6352 with the size of the crane in the 7633 Construction Site. I also agree that too many of the large sets these days feel like "multiple small sets in one large box", including the 7633 Construction Site, 7637 Farm, 7642 Garage, 7641 City Corner and others.

Do we have a picture of the rear of the coach from the public transport set anywhere yet? As for the front of the yellow car, it looks like one of these in yellow: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=61068 then a 1 x 4 tile in yellow behind that with the 1 x 4 tile sitting on some slope bricks

I requested these Part No: 3829c01 Name: Vehicle, Steering Stand 1 x 2 with Black Steering Wheel New Color: 28 (Dark Green) Part No: 60481 Name: Slope 65 2 x 1 x 2 New Color: 24 (Bright Yellow) Part No: 60481 Name: Slope 65 2 x 1 x 2 New Color: 23 (Bright Blue) Part No: 3005 Name: Brick 1 x 1 New Color: 111 (Transparent Brown) Part No: 4073 Name: Plate, Round 1 x 1 New Color: 126 (Transparent Bright Bluish-Violet) The color names and numbers match the TLG color chart linked to at the top of this thread.

That price for the Clone Turbo Tank is a rip-off, even given the "Lucas Tax"

Thanks for the BigW link, now I know not to bother going to BigW on Thursday, just to K-Mart to pick up my fire station. The Lamborghini is GREAT btw, very fun to build.

I think the public transport would have been better without the street sweeper and with the yellow sports car either removed or turned into a taxi similar to the one in the train station.

The price on the fire station is very good at $99 IMO, its as cheap as that set is going to get anytime soon and represents good value for that set (given all the nifty parts in it)

Great review, I picked this set up today and think its great too, just need to assemble it now :)

All the MYER stores I visited today seemed to have plenty of stock of everything, including Cargo Trains, Emerald Night and Flagship. I did not see a City Corner or a Galactic Enforcer at any of the 6 MYER stores in Perth. Picked up the Lambo police car just because it looks so GOOD (and I am still kicking myself for not picking up the yellow Lambo when it was on sale before) Now I just need to repeat the excercise next Thursday when I pick up a Fire Station and possibly a Red creator Sports Car.

Does anyone know if the $49 price tag for the fire helicopter at K-Mart is a sale price and if so, what the regular shelf price will be after the sale is over? I know the fire station at $99 is definatly a sale price (and I WILL be buying one)

Claiming that the yellow airplane and the blue motorbike are "only at K-Mart" could get them in trouble as both sets are available at plenty of other stores (or have been last I looked) I do LOVE that fire station at 99 bucks though (If you want the fire station, GET ONE at the K-Mart sale, 99 bucks is the cheapest you will find it anywhere anytime soon) Also interesting is that the catalog depicts the police motorcycle in the blue-sticker version, not the black-sticker version that all the shops seem to have. Maybe this means K-Mart has gotten some new stock which happens to be the blue sticker version (which would be good for me, I need more bikes for my police force and dont want more black sticker ones) Looks like my toy-sale-purchase-list is now complete unless Target or TRU get City stock we havent heard about yet (e.g. yellow truck or family house) or the new impulses/collectible figs appear somewhere City Fire Station Maybe Lambo Police Car (just because its looks so GOOD :) Red creator sports car (if the BigW price on it is low enough) Don't think I got the cash for another City Corner (not if I want to save for the Grand Emporium later in the year), but I really need some more 1 x 4 x 3 panels in trans-smoke (there is exactly ONE for sale on all of Bricklink for Australia dammit :P

I do have this crazy scheme planned (which I have successfully completed once before) where I will visit all 6 MYER stores in the state in a single day, along with any other LEGO retailers near those stores. So if any of them have the City Corner, Lambo police car or other stuff I want, I will be sure to see it (and have the option to buy it) The craziest thing is that I will be using buses and trains to do it.

Has anyone seen any discounts on the City Corner lately? Anywhere I can get it for less than RRP? (I need more of the trans-black bits from it for various bus related projects)

Now I have a dilemma, do I buy the Lamborghini police car (which is a GREAT model) or do I buy the City fire station (which has some GREAT parts) I also want the red creator sports car :( Decisions, decisions :)

YAY for the City fire station, I WILL be there to buy one for all the cool parts in it (since its being launched in the sale, it logically follows that it will be available at less than RRP) As for Creator, I assume that would be the crocodile, the fighter jet and the 4x4 pickup truck, right?

Would it actually float if you tried to put it into water or is it too heavy?

I think Type 3 would be good (if you have enough of the glass doors that is), otherwise Type 1 would work. Most supermarkets I see these days have Type 3 for frozen food and possibly for milk with Type 1 for things like cheese, cream, juice etc etc. Some supermarkets still have flat chest freezers with no covers (which were removed by most because they waste a lot of energy compared to the ones with the doors)

Don't forget the Dynamite piece as an accessory.

I am possibly interested in buying some of the parts (but not the whole set) from the new Passenger Train from someone in Australia who is willing to part one out or otherwise has the parts I seek. The parts I want are: The 2 passenger minifigs including the shoulder bag The 2 white train nose pieces (I think this piece would look great as the lower nose of a helicopter) The 4 new red angled "macaroni" bricks The clear 1 x 4 x 6 windscreen The 18 Trans-Black 1 x 4 x 3 panels I will also take any extra clear 1 x 4 x 6 windscreen that I can get my hands on I do not need or want any of the stickers from any of these sets. I checked Bricklink but the new train nose piece isn't even in the database yet and no-one is selling most of the other parts. I dont want to buy the whole set as I have no use for most of the parts (train parts etc) I am only interested in dealing with someone from Australia as I dont use PayPal (for reasons I wont go into)

Here in Australia, that's about the right size for a small IGA :)

heh, I know of at LEAST one IGA that actually has (or had last time I was down that way) a video section IN the store.